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Serbia has no plans of joining NATO — foreign minister

Belgrade is neutral in military terms and is not planning to become a member of NATO, Serbian First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivica Dadic assured

BELGRADE, March 22. /TASS/. Serbia is a neutral state and has no plans of joining the North Atlantic Alliance (NATO), Serbian First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivica Dadic told the Serbian television channel Pink on Sunday.

He said Serbia’s Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) was the highest degree of cooperation with the alliance for a country which had no plans to join it. Moreover, he underscored it did not mean any changes in Serbia’s position on its neutrality. "We are neutral in military terms and are not planning to become a member of NATO," he reassured. In this connection, he called not to "make a show" of Serbia’s adopting the plan, "since we have made not a single step further to the NATO membership."

Dadic said that thanks to cooperation with the alliance Serbia had been granted additional guarantees that Kosovo’s security forces would not be deployed in Kosovo’s northern areas populated mostly by ethnic Serbs without NATO’s consent. Serbia’s goal, according to Dadic, "is to build partner relations with all," bearing in mind the fact that the country enjoys an observer status at the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) as well.

In 2007, Serbia’s parliament passed a resolution on neutrality in respect of military alliances. Serbia adopted the Individual Partnership Action Plan with NATO in December 2014 and the alliance endorsed the document in January 2015.